Tried to eat more it does not work

Bump

Actually the "skipped meals" being bad is a myth. Many on here fast for 16hrs and then power feed for 8hrs. Timing of meals 1,3,or 8 of them a day does NOT matter...... that has been proven to be wrong..... and actually it's calories consumed in a week that matters.....not daily...

ahhh ... if you say so

timing of meals doesn't matter. all of my loss has come from working graveyard hours. I eat at strange hours all the time. I am rarely consistent and I have been losing weight just fine.

thats fine ... my response never said anything about timing of meals, nor was that the point of my response ... so my "ahh if you say so" what to the bicep pic who replied
[/quote]

gotcha....the quote button is being funny on my work pc.

Thank you for posting this! People keep telling me to eat more but I can't lose weight when I do. I decided awhile back that everyone is entitled to their opinion but I'm listening to my body.

Okay, so don't eat back your exercise calories and don't eat enough for your body to do it's job. Why are you even posting about it then? Is eating too little working for you? Fabulous. Continue starving yourself then.

^^^ this!!!
lmbo!! right ... why the heck did she post??

eating more isnt something the posters of mfp made up ... it is a FACT ...

Believe it or not, a weight-loss program that overly restricts calories will set you up for failure, as will a skipped meal. There is a point at which cutting calories will work against weight loss because consuming too few calories (or too few meals) leads to increased appetite and low satiety as your body prevents starvation. You will find it hard to implement your healthy eating goals when you’re feeling hungry and dissatisfied. And you will suffer from cravings, ultimately causing you to fall into under-eating and over-eating cycles.

Your body will make a choice: lose body fat or lose muscle. An inadequately fueled body will choose to drop calorie-burning muscle rather than fat. Excessive loss of lean muscle mass leads to weight loss without improvement of body composition or health. This leaves you frustrated and ever-battling your weight.

the OP will be posting later on down the line ... "EATING MORE REALLY WORKS" LOL!!

No, I disagree. The OP will be posting later on down the line... "WHY AM I AT A PLATEAU? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAS GONE WRONG! I'M STILL EATING 500-900 CALORIES A DAY AND HAVEN'T LOST A POUND IN OVER A MONTH!!"

LOL!! RIGHT!

If your body gets used to eating so little, what do u think will happen when you start eating normal again? Not going to be able to maintain just gain! good luck on your journey and hopefully you can become a healthier you!

You bring up a very good point! The goal is to create a lifestyle that we can maintain even after we reach our goal weight. By eating 1200 calories or less a day, not only are we not feeding our bodies the fuel it needs, but we are also setting ourselves up to not be able to maintain this lifestyle. I was doing 1200 calories a day at first, because MFP set that amount for me, but I was always hungry and not losing weight like I wanted to...I actually gained 2 lbs. So, I upped my calories to 1600 and have lost 3 lbs after I did that. We need to eat at least at our BMR level and try to eat our exercise calories back so that we do not fall below our BMR.

i didn't read all 10 pages of this, and i have no clue if the OP is still reading or not. but, she stated she had been eating 500 cal so going up to 1200 was an increase.

after speaking with someone who is knowledgable in this area i learned that if you are on a prolonged calorie deficit ( like years) it can take up to a year to correct the 'damage' done. so, 3 weeks might be entirely way too short of a time to see an increase in calories do ANYTHING! it could be months.

basically, what you are currently doing, is losing muscle along with the fat. when you lose a lb the way you're doing it you're not just losing a lb of fat. you're losing your muscle along with that. and, at the end of the day what you want is to lose lbs of FAT!

i know exactly where you are. it took me weeks to convince myself to increase from 900 to 1200 calories a day. not NET, just consuming. and it's taken me 2 months to convince myself to try and NET 1200 calories!! i am at a stand still, maybe even gained a lb or two. but, MY goal is FAT loss, not lbs lost. i want my body fat% to go down. i don't care about the number on the scale. i care about the inches and percentage :-)

it definitely is a MAJOR change in thought process. one that doesn't occur over night and comes with doing tons of research, and educating myself as much as i possibly can!!

best of luck in your journey. whatever you decide!!!

Okay, so don't eat back your exercise calories and don't eat enough for your body to do it's job. Why are you even posting about it then? Is eating too little working for you? Fabulous. Continue starving yourself then.

^^^ this!!!
lmbo!! right ... why the heck did she post??

eating more isnt something the posters of mfp made up ... it is a FACT ...

Believe it or not, a weight-loss program that overly restricts calories will set you up for failure, as will a skipped meal. There is a point at which cutting calories will work against weight loss because consuming too few calories (or too few meals) leads to increased appetite and low satiety as your body prevents starvation. You will find it hard to implement your healthy eating goals when you’re feeling hungry and dissatisfied. And you will suffer from cravings, ultimately causing you to fall into under-eating and over-eating cycles.

Your body will make a choice: lose body fat or lose muscle. An inadequately fueled body will choose to drop calorie-burning muscle rather than fat. Excessive loss of lean muscle mass leads to weight loss without improvement of body composition or health. This leaves you frustrated and ever-battling your weight.

the OP will be posting later on down the line ... "EATING MORE REALLY WORKS" LOL!!

No, I disagree. The OP will be posting later on down the line... "WHY AM I AT A PLATEAU? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAS GONE WRONG! I'M STILL EATING 500-900 CALORIES A DAY AND HAVEN'T LOST A POUND IN OVER A MONTH!!"

I doubt it, but I do think she might start posting asking how to prevent getting wrinkly as the weight comes off, and if it's normal for your hair to fall out.

edit - I am not saying this to be mean at all. I am completely honest when I say netting 500 cals a day is seriously unhealthy.

Increasing calories only works for some people, and only under certain circumstances. Conventional wisdom says if you want to lose weight, eat LESS.. and that's still true the vast majority of the time. When someone isn't losing weight, it's most often because they're either underestimating the calories they're eating or overestimating their calorie burn.

That said, there are rare occasions when someone is doing intense exercise, especially strength training, and truly isn't taking in enough fuel. When that's the case, increasing calorie intake can lead to more efficiency overall when it comes to muscle repair and recovery as well as fat loss.

The whole "eat more to lose weight!" party line is thrown around entirely too much on these boards. Most of the time, it simply isn't the case.

when they say "eat more" they just mean enough to support one's body and be able to sustain it long term. this is not 3000 calories but more like 1600-2200. this is the normal "daily intake" for most people that is on most nutrition labels. sure, if you have a seriously damaged metabolism or a really low metabolism by nature (thyroid problem or something else like that), it probably wouldn't work for you. but it does actually work when given a chance. some people give up pretty quickly because they might see a gain as their body adjusts. these gains go away and the body then thinks it is being fed again. there are people who eat very litte and are still not in good shape, mostly because they have damaged their metabolism over years and their body has tried to compensate by getting used to that level. or, if they have a condition that naturally makes their metabolism low. but for most people, this is not the case. most people can eat a little more and it helps them in the end to keep their metabolism higher.

Increasing calories only works for some people, and only under certain circumstances. Conventional wisdom says if you want to lose weight, eat LESS.. and that's still true the vast majority of the time. When someone isn't losing weight, it's most often because they're either underestimating the calories they're eating or overestimating their calorie burn.

That said, there are rare occasions when someone is doing intense exercise, especially strength training, and truly isn't taking in enough fuel. When that's the case, increasing calorie intake can lead to more efficiency overall when it comes to muscle repair and recovery as well as fat loss.

The whole "eat more to lose weight!" party line is thrown around entirely too much on these boards. Most of the time, it simply isn't the case.

when they say "eat more" they just mean enough to support one's body and be able to sustain it long term. this is not 3000 calories but more like 1600-2200. this is the normal "daily intake" for most people that is on most nutrition labels. sure, if you have a seriously damaged metabolism or a really low metabolism by nature (thyroid problem or something else like that), it probably wouldn't work for you. but it does actually work when given a chance. some people give up pretty quickly because they might see a gain as their body adjusts. these gains go away and the body then thinks it is being fed again. there are people who eat very litte and are still not in good shape, mostly because they have damaged their metabolism over years and their body has tried to compensate by getting used to that level. or, if they have a condition that naturally makes their metabolism low. but for most people, this is not the case. most people can eat a little more and it helps them in the end to keep their metabolism higher.

Right, I understand that and I don't disagree with you at all. But when someone says, I've been eating X number of calories for X amount of time and haven't lost any weight, it's almost always underestimating intake or overestimating burn. If someone is truly eating 1200 calories for 3 months, they WILL lose weight.. if they do not, they are most likely eating more than they think they are, or burning less calories than they think they are.

I completely agree with you that most people should be eating in that slightly higher calorie range, like the 1600-2200 that you mention, for slow, steady fat loss as well as a diet that's easy to maintain long-term. I'm just saying that most of the time when people aren't losing weight, it's certainly not because they're not eating enough.

sure of course they will lose weight eating 1200. but it is probably going to be a higher percent of muscle that they will lose compared to the percentage of muscle they would lose by eating more. and sure, i am not saying they won't lose weight losing 1200 but i know in my case it damaged my metabolism and i've had a really hard time eating higher calories because of doing that. i wouldn't recommend it. sure they will lose weight, though.

The bottom line is eating lower calories you continue for long term. I have dieted on and off for last 20 years and lost on 1200 calorie diet but I would go off for I was not fulfilled. This is a lifestyle move.
I want to lose and eat for the rest of my life and keep on it.
Eating more makes sense for the rest of your life, which pushes you to exercise which is new concept for me. I would just diet.
Now I am walking and eating more than any diet in my life and I am finally losing and feeling good.